Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE:DIN) Short Interest Up 9.3% in December

Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE:DIN) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,880,000 shares, a growth of 9.3% from the November 30th total of 1,720,000 shares. Approximately 12.6% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 571,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Dine Brands Global

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in DIN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in Dine Brands Global by 164.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 95,399 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $2,979,000 after purchasing an additional 59,360 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Dine Brands Global in the third quarter valued at $686,000. Barclays PLC grew its position in Dine Brands Global by 135.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 35,946 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,123,000 after purchasing an additional 20,673 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Dine Brands Global by 1.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 349,949 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $10,932,000 after purchasing an additional 3,584 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harvest Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Dine Brands Global by 11.6% in the third quarter. Harvest Investment Advisors LLC now owns 32,591 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,018,000 after purchasing an additional 3,395 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.83% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DIN has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Dine Brands Global from $51.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 7th. CL King lowered shares of Dine Brands Global from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Dine Brands Global from $38.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $47.00 target price on shares of Dine Brands Global in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Dine Brands Global from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Dine Brands Global presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.71.

Dine Brands Global Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of DIN stock opened at $30.10 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $32.31 and a 200-day moving average of $32.55. Dine Brands Global has a 12-month low of $28.25 and a 12-month high of $51.35. The company has a market capitalization of $458.90 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.73.

Dine Brands Global (NYSE:DIN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The restaurant operator reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.10. Dine Brands Global had a net margin of 11.31% and a negative return on equity of 37.75%. The company had revenue of $195.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $198.40 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.46 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Dine Brands Global will post 5.84 EPS for the current year.

Dine Brands Global Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 20th will be given a dividend of $0.51 per share. This represents a $2.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.78%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 20th. Dine Brands Global’s dividend payout ratio is 33.94%.

About Dine Brands Global

Dine Brands Global, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, owns, franchises, and operates restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company operates through six segments: Applebee's Franchise Operations, International House of Pancakes (IHOP) Franchise Solutions, Fuzzy's franchise operations, Rental Operations, Financing Operations, and Company-Operated Restaurant Operations.